In front of a packed Homecoming crowd, the Rossford Bulldogs defeated the Genoa Comets, 48-32 last Friday night. In a highly anticipated game between the Northern Buckeye Conference frontrunners, Rossford emerged victorious and claimed sole possession of the conference lead at the season’s halfway point.

Coming into the game neither team had a conference loss, but Rossford exercised their will right from the opening tip when 6’10 senior center Derek Vorst drew a foul on the opening possession. He made one shot to give Rossford the early lead and added to it a couple possessions later with a dunk in traffic. He scored twice more in the first quarter, both times establishing a strong inside presence, and teammate Jake Morrison knocked down a triple to give Rossford a 10-4 edge.

Genoa’s Skylar Ju hit a three pointer to open the second quarter, and the Comets used that basket to build an 8-2 run to tie the game at 12.

However, Rossford guard Brenden Revels stole the ball in open court and cruised in for an uncontested layup. On the next Comet possession, Vorst stood strong in the paint and drew a charge against Ju as he drove to the hoop. After two misses, the scrappy Bulldogs kept the ball alive with offensive rebounding by Morrison and Brandon Swope.

Revels fired a three from the corner, but was fouled. He hit all three shots from the free throw line and followed that up with another steal that led to a fastbreak layup. Vorst finished Rossford’s scoring in the half when he stepped back and hit a trey from the top of the key. Genoa added an inside basket by Walter Plantz, but RHS maintained a 2214 halftime advantage.

The third quarter opened with another three by Ju. After a score off the block by Vorst, Genoa’s Ryan Houston hit a deep triple to pull to within four. A Rossford timeout righted things for the Bulldogs who raced out to a 13-0 run to end the period. The team added three-pointers by Garette Murphree, Vorst, and Revels in transition to put the Bulldogs in command, 37-20.

Genoa’s Aiden Brunkhorst nailed a three to open the final period. They used the momentum to cut into Rossford’s lead as they broke into a 10-2 run, forcing a Bulldog timeout at the 2:58 mark. Long possessions on the half court by both teams kept the clock running and forced the Comets to contend with the time as well as the unrelenting Bulldog defense.

After the RHS timeout, the team responded once again. Revels drove past defenders for two, and Morrison blocked a shot near the top of the key, caught it on the bounce and sailed in for a fastbreak dunk. He looked to repeat this on the next play when he stole the ball at half court. However, on the shot attempt he was fouled and made good on one of two shots.

On defense, Wes Ellison drew a foul, giving the ball back to the Bulldogs, and Vorst threw down a dunk off the inbound pass. Following another Comet miss, Vorst grabbed the rebound and threw it long to a streaking Revels for a layup that gave RHS its biggest lead of the game at 48-30. The Comets added two free throws in the final moments, but it was too little, too late and the Bulldogs claimed a decisive victory.

Head Coach Brian Vorst praised his team’s effort, especially on defense. “Everything starts with defense,” he said. “It comes down to knowing who the shooters are and getting to them and containing them. I thought we did a pretty good job of that. We played well defensively, especially in the second half.”

The Bulldog defense held Genoa to just 32 percent shooting for the game, forced 11 turnovers, produced eight steals and six blocked shots. On the glass Rossford grabbed 16 defensive rebounds.

As the second half of the season gets underway, Coach Vorst believes defeating a team like the Comets will pay dividends. “Hopefully, we continue to build confidence. We just need to get a consistent effort and we need to bring it when we need to. As long as we come out with that like we had against Genoa, we can be pretty good.”

On offense, Vorst put on a clinic, recording a double- double with a gamehigh 21 points and 11 rebounds.

“Genoa didn’t double team him, thinking that they could stop everyone else; but when Derek asserted himself early it really put a fly in their ointment,” the coach said. “He shot threes with confidence. He wasn’t going to give up being the best post in the league, so he came in with something to prove.”

Joining Vorst in double figures was Revels who hit seven of 11 for a total of 18, and added five steals.

The Bulldogs improve to 10-2 overall and 7-0 in the NBC. Rossford will travel to Fostoria on Friday to start the second round of conference action.